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Laura Read reads "The Thing about Dumb Jokes is You Have to Be There" by Emily Blair

Laura Read is a poet and educator living in Spokane and a former Poet Laureate of Spokane. She is the author of Dresses from the Old Country (BOA Editions, 2018); Instructions for my Mother’s Funeral (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012, winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, selected by Dorianne Laux), and The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You (winner of the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award, 2011). Her poems appear widely. Recipient of a Washington State Artists Trust Grant, a Florida Review Prize for Poetry, and the Crab Creek Review Prize for Poetry, Laura teaches and presents regularly at literary festivals and conferences throughout the Northwest, such as GetLit!, Write on the Sound, Litfuse, and the Port Townsend Writers Conference. Laura teaches writing and literature at Spokane Falls Community College.

Verne Windham got his start at Spokane Public Radio 20 years ago. “I came in to complain and they hired me.” He’s now the Program Director, as well as the host of Morning Classical and Concert of the Week. When choosing music for Morning Classical, Verne likes to keep the agenda as broadly defined as possible. For Concert of the Week, he focuses on the best of recent local performances, mostly classical in nature. For many years, Verne was also the conductor of the Spokane Youth Orchestra. He enjoys gardening, his vintage car and playing French horn.